Jan Vogler - My Tunes (2007)

If you're someone who enjoys eating dessert first -- or for that matter just eating dessert and skipping the rest of the meal -- then this album is likely to satisfy you. Jan Vogler's admittedly highly personal selection of short works for cello and chamber orchestra is filled with many of the syrupy, sometimes saccharin standards of the cello repertoire. While there's nothing wrong with any of these works, an entire album filled with them is just an overload of sweet -- just as it would be with food. Vogler attempts to make a loose connection between the selections, calling them a symbolic journey from St. Petersburg to New York City, but the explanation he offers is very cursory and not entirely convincing. Vogler's playing is much the same as his choice of repertoire -- unvaried. From Bach to Bruch to Wagner, his sound is virtually unchanged throughout the album. Vibrato is always intense and wide, shifts are constantly exaggerated, and rubato is applied like thick icing on a cake. Even in the highly idiomatic works of Bloch and Bruch, Vogler's interpretation sounds no more "Jewish" than any other selection. In short, listeners seeking some innocuous background music are in luck; others may want to seek out some meat and potatoes in their diets.